Moss Rock Park

February 18, 2024 saucee192 Comments

Today’s walk is based off of walk #10 from John Crouch’s Walk Victoria. The walk we (Ryuu-chan, Dragon-Kun, and I) did was a bit longer (4.64km).

The walk Crouch suggested goes in a clockwise direction, making the walker go down a very rocky and steep hill. Going down said hill is not a problem. The problem is going down safely. For those who have bad knees/ankles, I suggest going in the opposite directions or using an alternative route (such as turning around from the view point of Moss Rock and heading East on Fairfield and heading down Memorial to Dallas Rd)

Entrance to Moss Rock Park. Ryuu-chan said she is a rare and endangered species

From Moss Rock we headed down to Dallas Rd.

Ryuu-chan found an ancient relative in someone’s garden

We had a great view of the Olympic Mountains. I think they are called that because they often look like they are floating in clouds… but that is just my guess.

View from Victoria to the Olympic Mountains in Washington State

At clover point Ryuu-kun posed by a stone carving in the dog park.

We walked along the coast to the world’s largest totem pole (according to the sign) in Beacon Hill Park. My father says he remembers watching the pole being carved when he was a very young boy.

Sign saying that it is the world’s tallest totem pole

We then walked to the Children’s Farm where there are goats (with their creepy eyes), llamas, and chickens.

We then walked toward the cricket pavilion , tennis courts, bowling green, and croquet lawns.

Dragon-kun posing in front of a plum tree in blossom

Ryu-chan wanted to stay and play Croquet… but it was going on 2pm and Dragon-kun and I didn’t have lunch yet and were getting hungry.

If you want to do this walk there is parking beside and in front of the Children’s Farm in the park.

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Butchart Gardens

February 11, 2024February 11, 2024 saucee19Leave a comment

Today’s adventure is a little different. It is the start of travels with Ryuu-chan, and Dragon-kun.

Usagi-chan may make a few appearances, but she said she will definitely be back in 12 years.

I was so excited about Ryuu and Dragon joining me on my walk around Butchart Gardens that I forgot to set my Fitbit to record the walk…so I’m not sure the distance.

Butchart Gardens is wheelchair and family friendly, there are lots of places to sit and enjoy the gardens… although today being rainy… maybe not so much with the sitting.

Ryuu-chan and Dragon-kun posing in front of the Butchart Gardens sign

The Gardens was a limestone quarry which supplied limestone to the Portland cement plant. (Both quarry and cement plant were owned by the Butchart family). The garden was the idea of Jennie Butchart (wife of cement and quarry owner -Robert Pim Butchart)

In 1904, Jennie Butchart took the abandoned quarry and started turning it into the Sunken Garden. (The Sunken Gardens is signature garden – it is on all the postcards for the Gardens).

Ross Fountain Lookout was a smaller quarry and turned into the fountains in 1964.

The Bog Garden usually has giant ferns in the summer months and it looks prehistoric. Ryuu and Dragon were disappointed not to see the ferns as it reminds them of their dinosaur ancestry, but they were happy to see the moss.

Ryuu and Dragon on the Carousel sculpture

Ryuu-chan and Dragon-kun liked watching the Carousel but didn’t want to ride on something that went round in circles, so opted for a photo on the sculpture of the carousel horse at the base of the building that houses the Carousel.

Ryuu-chan and Dragon-Kun posing informally front of the Dragon Fountain

The Dragon Fountain is a gift from the People’s Republic of China and Victoria’s sister City, Suzhou to Butchart Gardens.

If you read last week’s post you’ll see that Victoria has many sister cities…well okay… maybe just two… I am finding out about these sister cities as I walk.

We walked through the rose garden…again wrong time of year.

The Japanese garden was started in 1906 and designed by the Japanese landscape artist, Isaburo Kishida.

Italian Garden (Ryuu and Dragon are looking toward the part of the building where it is rumoured to have a bowling alley)

Tacos Boar -people rub the snout for good luck

The last bunch of photos are in what is usually the Blue Poppy Restaurant, but at the moment is the Spring Prelude exhibit.

If you are think of visiting the gardens here is some information:

Ticket price: $30.70 (Adult)

22K from downtown Victoria (BC Transit does have buses that go to the Gardens)

Butchart Gardens

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James Bay

February 4, 2024 saucee19Leave a comment

Today’s walk is based on walk #9 of John Crouch’s ‘Walk Victoria’ (according to my local independent bookshop this book is out of print and the author is in the process of getting it republished…hopefully with distances in Km or miles instead of hours). This walk is 5.13k .

Apparently, I didn’t learn the basics in kindergarten: always use a pencil first. The thicker red line is the route we took.

If doing this route and you need a place to park, there are parking spaces on Douglas and in Beacon Hill Park.

According to John Crouch’s book, James Bay was made into a fashionable suburb in the 1800s. The rich land owners then decided that the Rockland area was better and moved their houses there and subdivided their properties in James Bay allowing smaller houses to be built. And there are a lot of cute little cottage-like houses in the James Bay Area…. Did I photograph any of them?Nope.

But I did take a photo of an interesting fence.

The walk took R. and I to the main tourist area of the city: in front of the B.C. Parliament Buildings (also known as ‘The Birdcage’ – I might do a blog about it in the future)

As we were passing the cenotaph, a woman was changing the wreaths. R., who is braver than me, asked the woman about it. The woman said she is from the Legion, and every Memorial Day they get more wreaths than they can display, so they spread the wreaths out throughout the year.

Cenotaph in front of the B. C. Parliament

Statue of Queen Victoria (whom the city is named after)

The Knowledge Totem Pole carved by Cicero August, a costal Salish artist, and his sons Darrell and Doug August.

From the Parliament building one can see the Empress Hotel. (Apparently, they have a good tea service.)

Continuing our walk along the water there is a path that leads behind Laurel Point Hotel. At the beginning of the path there are two commemorative plaques from Victoria’s sister City: Morioka.

A little further along and there is another tribute to the City of Victoria from the Lebanese community.

Walking around the point, past Fisherman’s Wharf, and the Canadian Coast Guard there was a pole covered in masks. one of the masks looked like another relative to Usagi-chan, but the lighting was wrong and the picture did not turn out. (Usagi-chan was tired today, so stayed at home).

We finished our walk by walking up Government, but along the way there were little signs of spring everywhere.

Walks and Hikes

Broadmead

January 28, 2024January 28, 2024 saucee19Leave a comment

This week’s walk is #17 from “Walk Victoria” by John Crouch. This walk has a short route, which Crouch says takes 1.5 hours to walk, and a long walk (2.5 hours). My friend R., usagi-chan, and I decided on the short route, which was roughly 7km long.

We started at Broadmead Shopping Centre (Broadmead was the name of the racing horse the late 19th century Victorian business man, R.P. Rithet, owned.)

Headed to Falaise Park.

Walked in a forested path along the Royal Oak Burial Park.

Instructions for the forested route were not very clear. Example, “Cross an intersecting trail and, after about 300 metres, in a cluster of tall cedar trees, follow the…” (the forest is FULL intersecting trails and cedar trees!!! Which cluster is he referring to?) I didn’t freak out too much as we were close to civilization, but I might bring an ordinance map next time.

There was a section which mentioned an alder filled gully… I misread it as Adder filled gully. I’m glad I had R, who is knowledgeable about plants, with me… I was about to hightail it out of there!

Interesting forest art on the path…usagi-chan said it looks a bit like a distant cousin

When we got to the top of the trail ( it was uphill a lot of the way) there was a Reservoir and the a path to McMinn Park via Grant Park.

We then walked through some residential areas and through another park path .

And back to the shopping mall.

The weather was quite warm 12•C and it was foggy. Perfect weather for a walk.

Walks and Hikes

Return to walking

January 21, 2024 saucee192 Comments

After my pilgrimage in Japan, I took a bit of an hiatus from walking.

Today with the aid of my friend R. I started walking again.

I hope to continue this trend of weekly walks throughout the year. I will be using different walking/hiking books I have to plan out my walks.

Today’s walk is #5 “Fairfield/Oak Bay” from Walk Victoria by John Crouch. My one criticism of this book is that the hikes are measured in the time it took John Crouch to walk the route and not in actual kilometres. Mr. Crouch wrote that it is a 3 hour walk… it took us 4.5 hours… of course we did stop to have tea and snacks at the coffee shop at Oak Bay Marina… but still.

Trafalgar Park Lookout and McNeil Bay… I think the bear is wondering why it is blue?

Victoria Golf course looking at the ocean and Olympic mountains, and Sloan Tree…not sure who Sloan was but there is a plaque to commemorate him.

Some of the art work that was along the way.

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Last days in Japan

April 24, 2023 saucee19Leave a comment

I returned home on Saturday.

The last couple of days in Japan I went to the places I used to love.

Visiting Yokohama and Akarenga (Red Brick Warehouse)

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Visiting Kukai

April 18, 2023 saucee19Leave a comment

Got up at stupid o’clock in the morning to catch a bus, to catch a train to catch a cable car to catch another bus to pay my respects to Kobo Daishi (Kukai).

All it said in my guidebook was to go to Mount Koya. It did not say that Mt. Koya is like a Temple village and that one needs a bus to get around. Luckily, the guy at the ticket counter at Namba Station told me about a discount ticket where it not only gets you to Mt Koya, but also includes a all you can ride two day bus pass.

Images around the Kobodaishi Gobyo Mausoleum

I got to the Kobodaishi Gobyo Mausoleum ( no photos allowed) which was through a giant cemetery with gigantic trees. After which I got my final Nokyocho stamp.

I am now on a bullet train heading back towards Tokyo. It’ll be nice to stay in one place for a while and not have to worry about accommodations, transportation and weather!

Tucking in to my Ekiben. Night.

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Sightseeing Tokushima

April 17, 2023 saucee191 Comment

Today started off with a bus ride to Ai no Yakata. Ai no Yakata is an Indigo dye museum and workshop. It was interesting seeing the history of Indigo dying industry in Tokushima. It was also fascinating making a pattern on a bandana.

Headed back to the city for a quick Lunch before heading out to the Naruto whirlpool. The best time for viewing the tidal whirlpool was 16:40. I just made it on time. I opted to see it from the bridge instead of from a boat as I thought it was huge (judging from photos I had seen). The photos are from a boat and there are more than one whirlpool. They aren’t that big. Glad I went to see it.

Tomorrow Mount Koya.

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Day 30

April 16, 2023April 16, 2023 saucee191 Comment

Weather: sunny

Last Shikoku Temple day. In the morning I went to Temple 88 (Okuboji). I was a bit emotional, as it was the last of the 88 temples. Not sure if the Temple itself is larger than the other temples, but it sure felt majestic.

Visiting all 88 temples is called “kechigan” (the fulfillment of one’s wish). However, some believe that one needs to complete the circle by returning to the temple one started with to achieve Kechigan. So I went back to Temple 1 (Ryozenji) where my journey began 30 days ago.

Do I feel any different from when I started 30 days ago? Yes, my feet hurt. Will have to see a doctor when I get home regarding plantar fasciitis. But besides that? I leant a lot about myself, which at this point I’m not ready to share on a public blog. And then there are other things/rules that I learnt:

1) there is no right or wrong way of doing something, only the way that works best for you.

2) (following point 1) don’t let someone make you feel bad about the way you do things. That is their insecurity NOT yours.

2) you are only allowed to feel sorry for yourself or frustrated about a situation for a maximum of 3 minutes – anything longer than that and you might miss the bus.

Tomorrow I’m doing some sightseeing in Tokushima. I was excited about starting the pilgrimage when I first got here I didn’t do any sightseeing.

For dinner I ate Tokushima Ramen. It is a rich Shoyu based ramen with a raw egg. It was kind of like Sukiyaki met Ramen and had a baby and called it Tokushima Ramen.

I am still trying to figure out the logistics of visiting Mt. Koya and paying my respects to Kobo Daishi.

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Day 29

April 15, 2023 saucee193 Comments

Weather: rainy

Started out later today. I went to the JR train station and got in line at the JR ticket counter to get my JR pass activated, only to find out that it was to be done at a travel agent office a couple of doors down and they don’t open until 10 am… so I had to wait around for 2 hours.

Finally got the tickets and headed to Temple 86 (Shidoji). It has a beautiful garden.

I then travelled to Temple 85 (Yakuriji) which has a cable car and the temple was in the clouds. This is where I met up with Samurai Duck! Samurai Duck wanted to join Usagi-chan and me in Shikoku and he was only able to join us for today.

After Yakuriji we went for lunch and both got a giant Tempura rice bowl each… neither of us were able to finish the food. (Samurai Duck rented a car so we were able to travel very quickly!)

We got to Temple 87 (Nagaoji) and met a woman from Ehime who is also doing the pilgrimage (this is her 4th time). She told us that a certain treat made by the monk’s wife from Nagaoji is very famous and is usually hard to get as it sells out quickly. Samurai Duck and I were able to get some.

This is where I said goodbye to Samurai Duck as I am staying in a guesthouse recommended by Kyoko-san: Inn Tek Tek and Samurai Duck had to make a 6 hour journey home! Thank you Samurai Duck!

In this area there is a famous sauna bath (the last of its kind) called Kara-furo. It was a popular way of bathing for people in the Nara period. CE 710 – 794. The ofuro (bath) culture in Japan didn’t take off until the Edo period 1603 – 1867. This sauna bathing was popular in areas around Nara and Shikoku where Onsen (natural hot springs) were not easily available.

Sauna bath. One enters a cave like room (the metal door on the left side of the picture). The temperature can get up to 115*C.

Tomorrow is Temple 88!